I am very excited to be taking part in the World Stuttering Network's StutterFEST 2023 event on Saturday, May 6th. This is an online 24-hour event and all times are in Eastern Standard Time. It is a great opportunity to connect, listen and interact with people who stutter from all over the world.
This year, I will be taking about embracing our fear of stuttering when reading out loud and seeing how it can actually be fun. As a self-described 'unsuccessful covert stutterer', I could hide my stutter to varying degrees of success, but reading out loud in class or in a public setting put the fear of God into me. I can still remember the panic and shame I felt in those situations when the words just would not come out of my mouth fluently.
As an author, I had been slow to take on recording an audiobook recording of my memoir; Just One More Drive: The true story of a stuttering homosexual and his race car. The process took twenty hours and over that time, I learnt a lot about myself and my feelings around my stutter. I was able to move from fear and begin to embrace fun. It is that process that I will be talking about from 11:40-12pm EST (8:40 - 9:00am PST) May 6th 2023.
For more information about StutterFEST and how to register, you can check out their website at: http://www.worldstutteringnetwork.net/stutterfest-program-of-events
